Do you ever look at a picture of yourself and exclaim: “Is that really me?” If so, here’s a concept from our book, QUINTESSENTIAL STYLE, to help you understand why you may not recognize yourself…It’s called “mirror image reversal.”

Of course we all know our image is reversed when we look in the mirror:

But, look at these two images of me.

Every day when I look in the mirror to put on my makeup I see this face:

But when a photo is taken of me, this is how I look. Can you see the

difference?

The mirror image is the one you see of yourself every day. (Therefore, I get used to seeing myself as in photo #1.)

But when the camera takes a photo of me, I look like photo #2. This is also how you see me in person.

You may not see much difference, but then again, you aren’t me. Aren’t we all more critical of our own photos than someone else’s? Notice my eyes and the part in my hair.

Sometimes I just don’t recognize myself in a reversed image .

If you combine the mirror reversal image PLUS the fact that your face has changed over the years, you might find you don’t recognize yourself.

What Happens to Our Face as We Age

According to a report by the Harvard Medical School, bits of aging show up in a myriad of ways:

• Foreheads expand as hairlines retreat
• Ears often get a bit longer because the cartilage in them grows
• Tips of noses may droop because connective tissue supporting nasal cartilage weakens.
• As volume decreases, skin that was once tight may get loose and saggy.
• Deep wrinkles (or expression lines) may form on forehead and around eyes.
• Finer wrinkles appear–perhaps due to sun damage or smoking.

What does this mean? It means between the mirror image reversal and the small changes that happen in our face over time…No wonder we don’t recognize ourselves in photos!

My friend, Shirley, says she doesn’t see much difference when she sees a photo of herself, versus her mirror image. (FYI, there is a feature on an iphone which allows you to reverse your image when you edit a photo. That’s how I did this with Shirley.)

What about you? When you look at photos, are you often perplexed by the image you see? Please let us know, either way. Or if you’ve ever even thought about it.